The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday met Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) to assess preparations for the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which is likely to begin in phases from early November, starting with the states going to polls in 2026 and a few others, it is learnt.
The two-day conference opened with the Commission assessing the readiness of CEOs across states and Union Territories for the SIR, the EC said. While the final rollout plan will be announced after the conference, it is learnt that the revision may be carried out in phases, beginning with Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal — states headed for polls next year — and a few others.
However, as first reported by The Indian Express on July 15, officials from Assam have already conveyed to the Commission their inclination to carry out an intensive revision of rolls only after the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is published for the state. Assam is the only state to have already undertaken the exercise of preparing an NRC. So the poll panel, it is learnt, is yet to take a final call on whether Assam will be included in the first phase.
The Indian Express has also learnt that when the modalities for the nationwide SIR are announced, the cut-off year of presumed eligibility is likely to follow the same principle as in Bihar — the last year of an intensive revision, which was 2003 for Bihar.
For the upcoming nationwide exercise, however, the EC could allow electors to submit extracts of their names from the electoral roll of any state’s last intensive revision, not just the state where they currently reside. During the Bihar SIR process, electors could submit extracts only from Bihar’s last intensive revision roll.
In other words, a migrant worker from West Bengal registered as a voter in Mumbai can remain enrolled in Maharashtra if he can show his name — or establish a link with a voter whose name figured — in the 2002 West Bengal electoral roll. The last intensive revision of West Bengal’s rolls was in 2002, and a voter on that roll will be presumed eligible to remain on the electoral roll of any other state where he or she is currently residing.
Wednesday’s meeting was the second interaction that the Commission has held with CEOs on the SIR in just over a month. At the previous meeting on September 10, the EC had asked the CEOs to trace as many electors as possible to the electoral rolls of the last intensive revision in their respective states, in order to minimise the number of voters who would need to submit documents to establish their eligibility.
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It is learnt that the process of mapping the existing electors to the last intensive revision, which was between 2002 and 2008, in the respective states has faced hiccups, particularly in urban areas where migration is high.
The EC had on June 24 ordered a Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls across the country, beginning with Bihar where Assembly elections were due. As per the order, all registered electors were required to fill enumeration forms to remain on the rolls, while those enrolled after 2003 (the year of Bihar’s last intensive revision of rolls) had to submit documents proving their date and/ or place of birth. This was meant to establish their eligibility as electors, including their citizenship.
The EC said Wednesday that the Commission, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, also reviewed the status of appointment and training of district, assembly constituency and booth-level officials. At the last meeting, all CEOs had given detailed presentations on the number of electors in their states and the qualifying date and number of electors in the last intensive revision.
“The Commission assessed the progress made on the directions previously issued to the CEOs to map the current electors with the electors as per the last SIR in the State/UT,” the EC said.
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At the press conference to announce the Bihar Assembly elections on October 6, when asked about the pan-India SIR, the CEC had said: “If you see the June 24 order, the EC has already taken the decision of conducting a pan-India SIR. Work is on. The Commission will hold a meeting to decide the dates for states and UTs.”
The EC’s decision to conduct the SIR has been challenged in the Supreme Court. The move was a departure from the practice of the past two decades, where the electoral rolls have been revised annually and before polls by making additions and deletions. Prior to computerisation of rolls, the electoral rolls were revised intensively, ie, prepared afresh.
